Conventional charged particle beam systems typically include a beam source and a focusing lens to direct the charged particle beam onto an object, a beam blanker to blank and un-blank the beam and a beam deflector to scan the beam across the object. Charged particle beam systems may further include a detector to detect charged particles and/or radiation emerging from the object due to the incident beam. Using the detector, images of the object can be generated by scanning the beam across the object and associating detected particle intensities with corresponding scan locations. Scanning of the beam across the object typically includes performing a plurality of line scans, wherein the location of incidence of the beam on the object is continuously moved along straight paths. A line scan is typically initiated by a trigger signal. Other desired actions, such as starting the scan deflection, ending the scan deflection, un-blanking the beam, blanking the beam, starting data acquisition and stopping data acquisition, are electronically controlled relative to the trigger signal by providing adjustable delay circuits in the respective electronic circuits controlling the beam deflector, the beam blanker and the data acquisition, respectively. Other charged particle systems can be used, for example for writing patterns on the object by deflecting the beam to a location within a pattern feature to be written, un-blanking the beam and further deflecting the beam such that it is incident on other locations within the pattern feature.